Japan's Alt Plus buys stake in VC-backed Korean mobile game developer

Set up in 2011, Emagine makes social games for both the Android and Apple iOS platforms. Its key titles include shooting game Zombie Street and role-playing strategy game Monster Warz.

According to a release, Alt Plus will use Emagine to launch its own flagship titles - such as role playing game The Spirit of Fantasia - into the South Korean market.

Japanese investors Lead and Ant originally backed Emagine in 2011 through two joint vehicles - Ant Lead Global Venture Capital Investment and Ant Lead No2 Venture Capital Investment. Following the transaction, each fund will continue to hold 21.2% and 11.6% of the company, respectively, with the remainder being held by the promoter.

Alt Plus, which was set up in 2010, listed on the Mothers section (a market for high-growth and emerging stocks) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange earlier this year, raising around JPY1.1 billion ($11.7 million).

There has been considerable VC activity in Japan's mobile app space in recent weeks: Scentan Ventures joined strategic investor Macromill in backing Glider Associates, the start-up behind smart phone curation app Antenna; Femto committed JPY100 million of seed funding to Toreta, a food services-focused app developer; and East Ventures invested JPY50 million in flea market app Mercari.

According to the App Annie Index, which analyses the global mobile apps market, Japan recently overtook the US as the leading country on the Android app marketplace Google Play, accounting for 29% of global revenue.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Venture
• TMT
• Ant Capital Partners
• Japan
• M&A